Interview with Abhishek Kukreja: Renewable surge demands faster grid expansion

Abhishek Kukreja is General Manager at Inox Wind Limited, where he oversees project development and execution in the transmission and renewable domains. With over 17 years of experience spanning power transmission, HVDC systems, and grid integration, he has worked with leading developers including Adani Energy Solutions and Techno Electric. In this interview with Power Peak Digest, he discusses the evolving balance between transmission expansion and renewable evacuation, operational transitions in the sector, and the challenges ahead for India’s grid as industrial loads and data centres rise.

How do you see the balance between transmission expansion and renewable evacuation evolving over the next five years?

With India targeting 500 gigawatts (GW) of renewable capacity by 2030, the sector is expanding rapidly. Many players are joining this transition, and backward integration is gaining momentum, especially in domestic solar cell and module manufacturing. However, the key challenge is evacuating renewable power from remote wind and solar clusters to the national grid.

Since these resources are concentrated in a few states, building transmission infrastructure on time is critical. Right-of-way (ROW) constraints, grid integration complexities, and power quality issues add layers of difficulty. India will need more high-capacity transmission corridors, particularly high-voltage direct current (HVDC) systems, to move renewable power efficiently across regions.

What are some of the technical and regulatory hurdles that transmission developers face when integrating large-scale renewable projects?

Integrating renewable power requires advanced substations equipped with plant controllers, reactive compensation systems, and harmonic filters to maintain grid stability. As India operates under a unified “One Nation, One Grid” framework, maintaining power quality is essential.

Recent regulatory updates have imposed stricter technical standards, which are difficult to comply with given the limited supply timelines for specialized grid equipment. For transmission developers, executing projects within regulatory deadlines while managing delays in equipment delivery remains one of the biggest challenges.

You have worked in both thermal-linked and renewable-linked transmission projects. What are the key operational lessons from this transition?

The operational landscape has changed significantly. Traditional thermal-linked projects had well-defined philosophies and protection systems refined over decades. Renewable-linked systems cannot follow the same approach because their generation characteristics are intermittent and variable.

Conventional protection systems lose sensitivity when applied to renewable-based grids, leading to potential faults or instability. Moreover, fluctuating power flow and poor power quality can reduce the lifespan of transmission assets. India needs a dedicated technical committee to study these long-term impacts and establish new operational standards for renewable evacuation systems.

As more data centres and green industrial hubs come online, what new expectations are being placed on transmission utilities?

Data centres and green industrial clusters are high-demand loads that require extremely reliable transmission connectivity. While Indian regulations specify transmission availability between 98 and 99.75 percent, data centres are now seeking uptime levels of 99.999 percent.

Meeting such reliability expectations will require advanced redundancy planning, predictive maintenance, and possibly localized high-reliability networks. This is a new challenge for transmission operators and service providers across the country.

Finally, what advice would you give young engineers entering India’s T&D and renewables sector?

The next decade will be a defining period for India’s power sector. The transition underway demands innovation and indigenous solutions. For young engineers, this is a time of opportunity. Those who are ready to learn, adapt, and contribute to the sector’s growth will find limitless potential to build rewarding careers in transmission and renewables.